Immediately, Cai Yushi also realized that something was wrong, turned around and shouted to Cai Shiquan, the foreign minister: "Quickly ask Fei Yunshi to go down the mountain to inquire about the situation!"
The person who led the salt corps outside to set up the defense line was none other than the Salt Transportation Department Fei Yunshi. Anyone else would not have been able to command the three hundred salt corps.
Shugang is not high, so Fei Yunzhi ran down after giving the order.
There is no abnormality in the mountain gate defense line, and there is no abnormality in the mountain bottom defense line. The salt guards are all sticking to their posts firmly.
But looking outside, on the road extending from the bottom of the mountain, countless officers and soldiers came, blocking the road.
Fei Yunshi angrily yelled at Yan Ding: "Why didn't you report this earlier!"
The saltmen responded responsibly: "The officer only ordered us to guard the mountain road and not let anyone go up the mountain, but those officers and soldiers did not go up the mountain!"
This answer was deeply appreciated by Fei Yunshi, so he rewarded Yan Ding for his big mouth.
After finishing the salt attack, Fei Yunshi once again looked at the officers and soldiers on the periphery. Because he stood slightly higher and had a wider field of vision, after a rough observation, he estimated that the number of officers and soldiers was about seven to eight hundred.
Therefore, Fei Yunshi could easily judge that these officials must be from the Yangzhou Guard! Except for the Yangzhou Guard, no other government office could gather so many officers and soldiers!
With these officers and soldiers intercepting them at the periphery, no wonder no one went up the mountain! Shugang is not big, so seven or eight hundred people are enough!
Looking outside again, I saw about a dozen scholars, with their respective entourages, standing awkwardly on the roadside. Probably because the officers and soldiers were blocking the way, they couldn't get through.
Fei Yunshi walked down, came to the officers and soldiers, and shouted: "Who is in charge here?"
But no one in the army paid attention to Fei Yunshi, and the two sides were not in the same system.
At this time, a group of people came from a distance, about dozens of them. The leader held a small flag and shouted: "Everyone, please follow closely, don't get separated!"
A young scholar from behind kept asking: "Can I really see the old alliance leader? Can I really attend the meeting?"
The leader holding the small flag said impatiently: "Now that I haven't collected the money in advance, if I, Zhang Wu, lied to you, would I still dare to take you to Shugang?
I guarantee that you will be able to see the living old leader, and if you want to attend the meeting and show your face, I will also find a way for you!"
When this group of people reached the officers and soldiers, a small military attaché suddenly jumped out, along with several people carrying large boxes.
The young military attache said to Zhang Wu who was holding a small flag: "Twenty each, no counter-offering!"
Zhang Wu negotiated a few words and asked the dozens of people who followed him to pay for their money.
Fei Yunshi suddenly saw a very recognizable figure in the crowd, and felt that the person holding the flag looked familiar. He immediately seemed to have grasped the key clue.
"Lin Tailai! What are you doing!" Fei Yunshi shouted at the tall and majestic figure.
Official Lin first threw a few silver ingots into the box, and then replied with a smile:
"It turns out that Yun Envoy is in person. I heard that as long as I pay twenty taels of silver today, I can go to Pingshan Hall, so I came to join in the fun. After all, I am also a member of the Jiangzuo literary world."
Fei Yunshi scolded: "You dare to collude with the Yangzhou Guards, act recklessly here, and set up private checkpoints. Aren't you afraid of being punished by the court?"
Official Lin immediately denied it: "Envoys should not taint people's innocence. These officers and soldiers have nothing to do with me! Didn't you see that I had to pay?"
Suddenly someone said to Lin Tai: "What? Even I have to pay for the toll to go up the mountain?"
Official Lin turned his head again and saw Zhang Jiayin, the Minister of War who had just resigned.
So Official Lin shouted to the military attaché who was collecting the money: "Let him go! Let him go! Let this old gentleman go!"
Then he asked Zhang Jiayin: "Why don't you see some other old gentlemen?"
Zhang Jiayin replied: "They are not stupid. If they see the situation here from a distance, they will naturally not put themselves in danger."
Lin Daguan then ordered: "After the old teacher enters Pingshan Hall, no matter what happens outside, don't come out."
Fei Yunzhi was furious when he heard these words. How dare you, Lin Tailai, say that you have nothing to do with these officers and soldiers?
After watching Zhang Jiayin disappear through the mountain gate, Lin Tailai said loudly to the officers and soldiers: "We have paid the money! Why don't you send us to Pingshan Hall!"
After the officers and soldiers collected the money, almost each of them could get one tael of silver, and they felt very happy.
After hearing the benefactor's call, hundreds of officers and soldiers, led by the small military attache who collected the money, rushed towards the Yanding defense line.
The young military attache shouted at the saltmen: "The Yangzhou Guards are performing martial arts here! Get out of the way!"
The salt guards were ordered to guard here, and they were also busy preparing to resist.
But the situation on both sides is completely different. The officers and soldiers have money, their morale is high, and their numbers are several times larger;
And Yan Ding was captured and sent to work for free, so he didn't have the will to fight with less to fight more.
In the blink of an eye, the first line of defense of Yanding at the bottom of the mountain was broken.
When the saltmen on the second line of defense at the mountain gate saw this, they simply stopped guarding, turned around, and fled into the mountains.
The officers and soldiers were not interested in chasing Yanding and rushed into the courtyard of Pingshan Hall.
In Pingshan Hall, you can always hear the bad news coming in from outside, as well as the noise getting closer and closer.
Feng Shike sighed: "I have long advised the Duke of Yanzhou not to stay in the mountains, but now I am alone and have nowhere to go."
It's a pity that Feng Shi is a male, otherwise he would have had a "Song of Besieged on All Sides".
The old alliance leader Wang had a dark face and remained silent as the last sign of stubbornness. He couldn't figure out why the literary conference could be held in the form of a battle between two armies?
Until I heard the latest report from outside the door: "The courtyard gate has been lost!"
Cai Yushi, who inspected salt, suddenly stood up and rushed out of the hall.
Standing on the platform outside, Cai Yushi glanced casually and found the key person, and shouted sternly: "Lin Tailai! Are you going to rebel?"
Lin Daguan, who was following the officers and soldiers, responded loudly: "Don't get me wrong! It has nothing to do with me!"
Cai Yushi had no time to quarrel with Lin Tailai, and instead shouted to the officers and soldiers: "You are committing rebellion, are you looking for death?"
Before he finished speaking, a small team suddenly rushed out from the official army. There were about dozens of people, all wearing standard cotton armor. At first glance, they seemed to be Yangzhou Guards officers, but on closer inspection, they seemed to be Yangzhou Guards officers.
Caught off guard by Cai Yushi, this small team rushed onto the platform, surrounded Cai Yushi, and carried Cai Yushi down.
While Cai Yushi was struggling, he yelled at Lin Daguan: "Lin Tailai, you are such a bad dog, you really want to rebel!"
Officer Lin shouted across the officers and soldiers: "How many times do I have to tell you before you believe me? These officers and soldiers have nothing to do with me!"
At this moment, Commander Wan of the Yangzhou Guard appeared at the mountain gate and ran over quickly.
"Don't make trouble! Don't make trouble!" Commander Wan shouted as he ran, but he didn't know who he was shouting to.
Cai Yushi turned directly to Commander Wan and shouted: "Wan! What the hell is going on? You are tired of living!"
Commander Wan answered honestly: "Did Cai Shiyu not see it yet? This is a mutiny!"
Cai Yushi almost vomited blood, what a bloody mutiny! Even if it is a mutiny, there must be a reason, right?
Commander Wan explained very considerately: "Your Salt Affairs Office seized 100,000 kilograms of salt from Yangzhou Guard for no reason, so the officers and soldiers were very dissatisfied!"
Cai Yushi asked in shock: "When did your 100,000 catties of salt be seized?"
Commander Wan replied: "The 100,000 kilograms of unlicensed salt that the Taizhou Branch seized from the Suzhou Caojun ship a while ago actually belongs to our Yangzhou Guard.
I didn’t need any certificate in the first place, but it was seized by your Salt Affairs Office for no reason!”
According to the Ming Salt Law, salt production from the Huaihe River and Huaihe River requires salt introduction and related certificates to be sold to other places. However, salt introduction certificates are not required to sell salt within Yangzhou Prefecture.
In other words, you can transport salt from the salt field to Yangzhou City at will. As long as you do not transport it outside Yangzhou, you do not need any certificate such as salt import.
Fei Yunshi, who had been hiding nearby to make soy sauce, suddenly became anxious, rushed out, and shouted to Commander Wan:
"Nonsense! Those salt goods were obviously taken to Suzhou Prefecture, so how did they become your Yangzhou Guards? Just because of your mouth?"
Commander Wan took out a document from his pocket: "This is the deed entrusting the Suzhou Guard Cao Army to transport salt on your behalf!"
Cai Yushi said to Commander Wan: "Why does this matter of one hundred thousand catties of salt come to this?"
Until now, Cai Yushi's tone still sounded a bit condescending and domineering.
Commander Wan felt unhappy and patiently explained: "We have a population of 50,000 in Yangzhou Guardsmen, including men, women, old and children, and we use 200,000 jins of salt a year.
I don’t know what your Yanzheng Yamen does for food. The price of salt in Yangzhou City has always been very expensive, even more expensive than other places.
So we, Yangzhou Guards, thought of buying salt directly from the salt field in large quantities, and then transporting it back to Yangzhou City for our own internal use without being exploited by salt merchants!
However, since most of the ships went north to transport the salt in spring, Suzhou Cao Ship was entrusted to help transport the salt.
But I didn’t expect that the first batch of 100,000 kilograms of salt would be directly seized by your Salt Affairs Office.”
The Yangzhou guards and troops who were besieging this place suddenly became angry and cursed in the streets.
"The dog officer must have colluded with the salt merchants in the city and doesn't want us to transport the salt ourselves!"
"In order to make the salt dealers in the city more money, the dog officials seized the 100,000 kilograms of salt bought by our Yangzhou guards as illegal salt!"
"Our commander kindly organized the salt transportation, but the dog salt officer must jump out and destroy it!"
The Yangzhou Guards officers and soldiers unanimously believed that the Salt Affairs Office was unwilling to let the military households of the Guardsmen fend for themselves and forcibly maintained the high salt prices of the salt merchants.
Cai Yushi was so angry that he couldn't speak. Can you big-headed soldiers have some brains? How much do you look down on the Salt Affairs Office?
This year's mere 200,000 kilograms of salt is not in the eyes at all, let alone protecting the salt merchants for 200,000 kilograms of salt!
But that’s what the officers and soldiers thought, and Cai Yushi couldn’t explain it at all!
Seeing that he couldn't explain it to the Yangzhou guards, Fei Yunshi turned around and asked Lin Daguan: "Then why didn't you explain the reasons clearly in court and just confessed?"
Lin Tailai shouted: "A foolish official is perverting the law! Submission and beating are a trick! This is a trick of submission and beating!"
You forced me to confess my crime, and you still had the nerve to ask me why I confessed my crime? Where is the justice of God!"
Fei Yunshi: "." Who stepped on the horse and beat whom into submission?
"You still say it has nothing to do with you?" Fei Yunshi asked again.
Official Lin replied: "For the benefit of the salt merchants, you seized the salt goods of Yangzhou Guard, which caused extreme dissatisfaction among the Yangzhou Guard officers and soldiers.
And then it sparked a mutiny today, what does it have to do with me, Lin Tailai?"
I’ll make up a chapter first, there will be more tonight